June 9, 2017

Silver Water Wheel Lodge

2 years ago

Gary Harada 31

Most of my avid fishing report readers want to know about the recent weather patterns. They already know that Lac Seul is an awesome big fish fishery, but they know that their personal success hinges on what the weather will be like on the week of their trip. This week proves the rule. The weather was off the charts beautiful, sunny and warm, and we absolutely smashed them.

With the pace that we keep, I will be honest and tell you that many of the years blend together and we forget which week was cold or wet or tough for fishing. What I can tell you now is that when the sun shines and the winds are light and the pine pollen pools up on wind blown shorelines, the SWWL guide crew will locate and hammer active pods of big walleyes. They don’t always work, but so many of them do that we will try unproven areas if the pollen is pushed in on a shoreline.

For the week, we caught and released 47 walleyes over 27 in., including 6 – 28s, 3 – 29s, and one of our most tenured guests, Gary Harada, caught his personal best 31 in. walleye this week. The weather was right, and he also caught and released a 27 and a 27.5 in. walleye along with a ton of 22s on the same day.

Walleye volume was very good this week. Daily guide sheets averaged 35 walleyes over 18 in. per day. More than 90% of those fish were caught between 4 – 10 ft.

Pike fishing was also good with the consistent weather. For the week, we had 17 over 37, with 3 – 40s, and 1 – 41. Transition spots worked, but the guides also found some big ones way back in the shallows with the warm conditions.

The bass are moving in and so are we. It is not even close to a full blown, shallow water bass bite, but they are thinking about it. For the week, we released 8 bass over 19 in.

We got burned by weather last week and I had to write about it. We got blessed by weather this week and I have to write about it. Weather is a huge deal for us and always will be.

The difference in weeks comes down to how the guides respond. This week, they crushed it.